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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
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More cows stolen BY SUSAN SANDYS
SUSAN.S@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Big year ahead P24
Growing numbers of cows stolen from Mid Canterbury farms is frustrating police, who are calling for the dairy industry to improve its animal tracking systems. Rustlers appear to be at work in the district, with 52 Friesian bull calves having gone missing from an Alford Forest farm and 17 milking cows from a Hinds farm. They are on top of a previouslyreported theft of 36 dairy cows from the Mayfield-area farm of Jill and David Quigley. Methven senior constable Mike Seque said he had not yet had time to investigate the newly-reported thefts, but as the stock went missing some time earlier this month, he believed they would be hard to trace. Farmers may be more aware of the issue following reports of the theft from Mr and Mrs Quigley’s, so counted their
stock. However, having such matters reported one to two weeks after the event made it difficult to investigate. There had been rain in the district which would have erased tyre marks from any offending vehicles, and footprints from any stock being herded off farms. “It’s just very frustrating,” Mr Seque said. “It’s a very, very difficult one to combat.” It was impossible to know whether the thefts were linked. The cows could have been up to the North Island and back and sold several times along the way. Mr Seque urged farmers to be more vigilant and count their cattle more often. The NAIT (National Animal Identification and Tracing) ear tag system was not infallible, as the tags could be replaced with new tags, similar to changing a number plate on a stolen car. He believed branding of cows, similar to what happens with racehorses, could be a better system, and suggested a farmer
discussion group be established. Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers chairman Willy Leferink agreed on the discussion group. “We need to do something, because we can’t have this,” Mr Leferink said. However, he was not sure branding would be the answer. Introducing a new system would come with costs, and there were potential animal welfare issues. Discussion with NAIT personnel could prove more useful. The NAIT system was not foolproof, and tags left over after calving could be misused further down the track by those with criminal minds. “It’s shocking that you can’t even trust your own fellow countrymen any more,” Mr Leferink said. Stolen cattle could be ending up as pet food, with milking being “barely worth the effort at the moment” due to a downturn in the industry.
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